A Long Day

I hadn’t been sleeping well and was extremely tired. The day wasn’t bad, it was just long.

After cleaning up the kitchen and putting freshly bathed children to bed I was in need of some alone time. Some days I just need to be alone, where no one will hang on my leg or pull at my shirt for something they need. I found my place of relaxing and I put on some music and lit candles.

As I laid my head back my eyes couldn’t help but fill with tears. The days events, and even the events of the past week began to replay. My heart was convicted over my lack of patience, unkind tone, and lack of time in prayer with the Lord. I spent the next 30 min. in prayer for all kinds of things and simply just getting my own walk with the Lord back on track.

For the umpteenth time in the past year I had gotten an e-mail that night and though the e-mail was meant to be very encouraging, I felt like I had been placed on a pedestal and I didn’t want to be there. I am thankful for those that encourage my heart, but with everything in me, I want people to know that I am real, just like them. I struggle, greatly at times. My walk with the Lord could be so much better than it is. Being put on a pedestal and compared to others is not something I desire. I am just like you!

As a child I remember looking up to different women I knew. They seemed to be super Christians, you know? Always have the right answer, always have joy no matter what is going on in life. Now that I am older, I have learned something. I realize that those women I *idolized* at one time or another, were just women trying to live their life to please the Lord. They didn’t want to be on a pedestal either. They knew what to say at the right time because they were allowing the Holy Spirit to control their tongue. They always seemed joyful because it was the Lord who was giving them that joy. Everything in their life that seemed to make them *Super* was all coming from a sweet fellowship they had with the Lord. I’m not saying it is wrong to look up to others, I’m just saying, putting people on a pedestal way above yourself or others isn’t the right way to admire them. It takes the focus off of the One who has made them who and what they are. The attention should be on God and what great things He has done in their lives.

Putting others on a pedestal and lifting them up can be dangerous, because all of us are human and all of us will fail each other. God is the One who deserves the praise for all that we are able to do through Him. (Matthew 19:26)

If you click off this page with only one thing you will remember, can it be that you can have a close walk with the Lord as well? You can have the joy that He gives, you can have the sweet fellowship with Him. You can be the one who allows the Lord to use your life to point others to Him. Don’t hesitate to encourage others, but don’t raise them so far above yourself that they seem unattainable. We all have the same opportunity to have a close walk with the Lord, we just have to be disciplined to maintain it.

I am so thankful the Lord is willing to use my life for His glory because I am thinking that most days He looks down at me and says, “Oh Wendy, here we go again!” The Lord also wants to use your life as well though. We are all on the same playing field and instead of comparing ourselves to each other, let’s just get busy with living our own lives for God’s glory!